game boy Work In Progress: Complete List of NA(US) Game Boy Cartridge Variants

[Splain | 2,575]

Hey @RpgCollector how about another variant, as a late Christmas present?

[RH | 4,935]

I trust you guys won't back door me on this one, but I have been shocked how long it's taken me to find a Raging Fighter, rev-1.  I've had this eBay search open for 2-3 years and I don't think I've ever seen this game for sale.  Maybe there was one that slipped by early on when I saved the search and it was in a poor condition so I didn't want it.  If I had known it'd take me this long to finally see one, I wouldn't have waited but this seems to be in great shape, so I won't complain for ignoring the possible single that might have popped up 2-3 years ago.  I'm glad to finally knock this off the list.

Anyway, I know some of you guys already have a copy of this variant.  How did you get yours?  Do you recall finding it in the wild or buying it off of eBay?  Any chance it was from Canada?  I feel like this isn't the first hard-to-find GB variant that I've had to simply bite-the-bullet and buy from Canada.  The game was reasonably priced but of course, shipping was harsh because that's the facts when shipping from their to the US.  My guess is that some of these less common variants were part of Canadian distribution and Canada just happened to get some later prints and within the time of making the US batches for sale, they made minor changes to the labels and only Canada got some of them.  Does that sound legit to you guys, or are you not so sure?

Anyway, here's the link to the BIN on eBay.  $9.99CAD is more than reasonable.  The $12.00 shipping, however, felt like highway robbery (by the post office, no the seller.)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/285149801550

Edited February 17, 2023 by RH

[samsamsamsmasmasma | 16]

1 hour ago, RH said:

I trust you guys won't back door me on this one, but I have been shocked how long it's taken me to find a Raging Fighter, rev-1.  I've had this eBay search open for 2-3 years and I don't think I've ever seen this game for sale.  Maybe there was one that slipped by early on when I saved the search and it was in a poor condition so I didn't want it.  If I had known it'd take me this long to finally see one, I would have waited but this seems to be in great shape, so I won't complain.  I'm glad to finally knock this off the list.

Anyway, I know some of you guys already have a copy of this variant.  How did you get yours?  Do you recall finding it in the wild or buying it off of eBay?  Any chance it was from Canada?  I feel like this isn't the first hard-to-find GB variant that I've had to simply bite-the-bullet and buy from Canada.  The game was reasonably priced but of course, shipping was harsh because that's the facts when shipping from their to the US.  My guess is that some of these less common variants were part of Canadian distribution and Canada just happened to get some later prints and within the time of making the US batches for sale, they made minor changes to the labels and only Canada got some of them.  Does that sound legit to you guys, or are you not so sure.

Anyway, here's the link to the BIN on eBay.  $9.99CAD is more than reasonable.  The $12.00 shipping, however, felt like high way robbery (by the post office, no the seller.)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/285149801550

There were a few rev -1 that I only found in Canada, including this one.  Definitely seems reasonable that they were only sold there.

[DK | 264]

Super Mario Land 2 Rated E from Canada if anyone needs one:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/225482279639

[JVOSS | 1,762]

Very nice. not many of these show up anymore.   For anyone that needs this it a great find.

side note.  now i just need to find someone that can get the Canada games form the sellers that don't want to ship to the US.  any one know some one that will/can help let me know. 

[JVOSS | 1,762]

@RH, @samsamsamsmasmasma, @Splain  Will you want some pain to go with the NA set.

[JVOSS | 1,762]

and @RpgCollector,  have you seen?

[RH | 4,935]

31 minutes ago, JVOSS said:

@RH, @samsamsamsmasmasma, @Splain  Will you want some pain to go with the NA set.

[JVOSS | 1,762]

@RH

[RH | 4,935]

Where did you get those? How is this possible?

[RH | 4,935]

I know they have a USA serial, but considering the Spanish, I’m assuming these are for Mexico. Do they play in Spanish?

[JVOSS | 1,762]

Yes they play in Spanish.  and different sellers on eBay.  each less then 50usd

 

[Splain | 2,575]

Good grief!!!

[RH | 4,935]

7 hours ago, JVOSS said:

Yes they play in Spanish.  and different sellers on eBay.  each less then 50usd

 

I will say, doing a very quick search, I didn’t find any more exactly like that.  I mean, y’all feel free to add it to your personal lists, but I don’t track Definitive Canadian carts, so this is kind of in that non-US category.  But with that said,  all “Spanish” carts I did find and looked at closely looked like US carts.  Of course, some might have been bootlegs.  The mobile site refuses to load quality photos, which is the dumbest feature on a site meant to sell items.

[Splain | 2,575]

Those are straight-up unique USA product codes. Not even variants. If Centipede counts twice in the fullset because of its two unique codes, I'm struggling to justify why these don't count towards the original fullset!

[RH | 4,935]

44 minutes ago, Splain said:

Those are straight-up unique USA product codes. Not even variants. If Centipede counts twice in the fullset because of its two unique codes, I'm struggling to justify why these don't count towards the original fullset!

I'm going back to the title and original intent (though by all means, you guys catalog and collect what you want.)  The initial list was for USA cartridges.  I know these have USA codes, and might be unique, but to my knowledge Nintendo never released an exclusive Spanish language game in the US.

That said, the list does have some "fudge" carts too it.  For instance, I just finally got my Raging Fighter -1 cartridge and it shipped from Canada.  As I asked, others seemed to recall getting them from Canada/outside the US, and there are other rare GB variants that fit that bill.

That said, we have no proof they weren't sold in the US, so IMHO, they count.  But something we can say with great certainty wasn't offered in the US, and makes sense as an item sold outside the US boarder, I'm willing to leave off.  Now, if someone in Texas, Arizona or Southern Florida can tell me that Nintendo did sell games in Spanish, in the US, in regions where there's a very-high concentration of Spanish speaking people back in the late-90s, I'd be willing to listen.

But with that said, I think it's safe to assume that those these are "-USA" cartridges, they were probably getting lacks with their coding and shipped these straight to Mexico, if they weren't manufactured there to begin with.

[JVOSS | 1,762]

1 hour ago, RH said:

I'm going back to the title and original intent (though by all means, you guys catalog and collect what you want.)  The initial list was for USA cartridges.  I know these have USA codes, and might be unique, but to my knowledge Nintendo never released an exclusive Spanish language game in the US.

That said, the list does have some "fudge" carts too it.  For instance, I just finally got my Raging Fighter -1 cartridge and it shipped from Canada.  As I asked, others seemed to recall getting them from Canada/outside the US, and there are other rare GB variants that fit that bill.

That said, we have no proof they weren't sold in the US, so IMHO, they count.  But something we can say with great certainty wasn't offered in the US, and makes sense as an item sold outside the US boarder, I'm willing to leave off.  Now, if someone in Texas, Arizona or Southern Florida can tell me that Nintendo did sell games in Spanish, in the US, in regions where there's a very-high concentration of Spanish speaking people back in the late-90s, I'd be willing to listen.

But with that said, I think it's safe to assume that those these are "-USA" cartridges, they were probably getting lacks with their coding and shipped these straight to Mexico, if they weren't manufactured there to begin with.

and how do you feel about the 3 double labels that are USA.  If i read you right you would also exclude due to not a true variant or a Canada cart...

additionally do you feel the same way for the Brazilian USA carts as well??  the are clearly USA carts that have been changed to meet the market they were sold in. 

[RH | 4,935]

10 minutes ago, JVOSS said:

and how do you feel about the 3 double labels that are USA.  If i read you right you would also exclude due to not a true variant or a Canada cart...

additionally do you feel the same way for the Brazilian USA carts as well??  the are clearly USA carts that have been changed to meet the market they were sold in. 

The "US" delineation is that they were made for and/or distributed in America.  We're splitting hairs here, but that's my opinion.  Basically, I'm only interested in the items that at some point, I could have walked into a licensed, US retailed and picked up the item. 

If I were personally more interested in the international collecting than I am, I might give consideration to that stuff, but just because something was marked as "USA" but sold elsewhere, I'm not interested.  Again though, if an Item is marked "USA", and the ROM is 100% the same as it was for the US market, it gets hard to prove that that specific variant was exclusive to another country or region.  Without definitive proof that such a variant was only available outside the US, I'd consider it as part of the collection "just to be sure".

[Splain | 2,575]

APAE = English language
APAJ = Japanese language
APAS = Spanish language (ESP carts, LTN carts, and JVOSS's carts above)
APAD = Deutsch? NOE carts use this
APAF = French language
APAU = this is what EUR and AUS carts use

 

4 hours ago, RH said:

Now, if someone in Texas, Arizona or Southern Florida can tell me that Nintendo did sell games in Spanish, in the US, in regions where there's a very-high concentration of Spanish speaking people back in the late-90s, I'd be willing to listen.

I sorta HOPE this is true because it would make sense, without being "Nintendo was lazy and now we have to collect more rare stuff because of it." But I can't tell if Mexico got pokemon GB games, or what region code they used, and I've been googling for a solid 4 minutes.

[JVOSS | 1,762]

1 hour ago, RH said:

Basically, I'm only interested in the items that at some point, I could have walked into a licensed, US retailed and picked up the item.

 

18 minutes ago, Splain said:

APAE = English language
APAJ = Japanese language
APAS = Spanish language (ESP carts, LTN carts, and JVOSS's carts above)
APAD = Deutsch? NOE carts use this
APAF = French language
APAU = this is what EUR and AUS carts use

 

I sorta HOPE this is true because it would make sense, without being "Nintendo was lazy and now we have to collect more rare stuff because of it." But I can't tell if Mexico got pokemon GB games, or what region code they used, and I've been googling for a solid 4 minutes.

the U was also used for UK.  the one i can't/don't know is the Canada version.  As the official World cart list Canada did not have one.  so maybe they used the French/USA version.  but yes your list did miss one the that is the KOR however this only shows up in the Gold and Silver Versions...

Pokemon Blue has a inside code that is uselessly reserved for the GBC or after 2000.  the board is clearly a 2000 cart, and a gen 2 i believe.  the board codes have only been seen in the DMG(BLACK)/GBC areas.  and it fits in with the time table.

i was able to talk with the blue seller and he is from TEXAS. He later said he pickup up in CA and was using it to improve his Spanish. 

[RH | 4,935]

13 hours ago, Splain said:

APAE = English language
APAJ = Japanese language
APAS = Spanish language (ESP carts, LTN carts, and JVOSS's carts above)
APAD = Deutsch? NOE carts use this
APAF = French language
APAU = this is what EUR and AUS carts use

 

I sorta HOPE this is true because it would make sense, without being "Nintendo was lazy and now we have to collect more rare stuff because of it." But I can't tell if Mexico got pokemon GB games, or what region code they used, and I've been googling for a solid 4 minutes.

Maybe you need to google it in Spanish.  Seriously.  I imagine the Spanish speaking collector community (though smaller) might have discussed these details.  I can't help there though.  I took 3 years of German in High School and 2 semesters of Biblical Greek in college, so I can't help at all in that department.

13 hours ago, JVOSS said:

 

the U was also used for UK.  the one i can't/don't know is the Canada version.  As the official World cart list Canada did not have one.  so maybe they used the French/USA version.  but yes your list did miss one the that is the KOR however this only shows up in the Gold and Silver Versions...

Pokemon Blue has a inside code that is uselessly reserved for the GBC or after 2000.  the board is clearly a 2000 cart, and a gen 2 i believe.  the board codes have only been seen in the DMG(BLACK)/GBC areas.  and it fits in with the time table.

i was able to talk with the blue seller and he is from TEXAS. He later said he pickup up in CA and was using it to improve his Spanish. 

IMHO, it be very interesting collector news if Nintendo release any game in USA that was only in one language, other than English.  Whether it's the GB, GBC, NES, SNES, etc.  If you could walk into a retailer and pick up a copy of a game in French, Spanish or anything else, in the US, I'd be shocked.  I've never heard of that, and if someone could confirm that there were "pocket" communities that Nintendo licensed small batches in alternate languages within the US, that would disrupt a lot of variant hunters and collections.

That said, I'm open to facts.  I'm just (personally) writing off these Spanish cartridges because I've never seen or heard any solid documentation or proof that someone has bought a "Spanish" Nintendo game in the US (again, from a licensed retailer.)

The original owner of these carts  might have picked up this Pokémon second-hand.  If he got it in Southern California, it wouldn't surprise me if someone who spoke Spanish made a trip to Mexico and happened to pick up a copy at their equivalent of a Wal-Mart, because why not.  But that could be wrong.  We just have no way of knowing.

[samsamsamsmasmasma | 16]

Cool find!

I think the bill and Ted corrected label also belongs in this discussion you all are having. It was a label with a USA code that was only released in Europe.

I live pretty close to the border. I wonder if it's worth going over to some game shops.

Edited March 23, 2023 by samsamsamsmasmasma

[JVOSS | 1,762]

44 minutes ago, samsamsamsmasmasma said:

Cool find!

I think the bill and Ted corrected label also belongs in this discussion you all are having. It was a label with a USA code that was only released in Europe.

I live pretty close to the border. I wonder if it's worth going over to some game shops.

pokemon blue came from Texas.

[RH | 4,935]

1 hour ago, samsamsamsmasmasma said:

Cool find!

I think the bill and Ted corrected label also belongs in this discussion you all are having. It was a label with a USA code that was only released in Europe.

I live pretty close to the border. I wonder if it's worth going over to some game shops.

Yeah, I agree.  I got my B&T from Europe or possibly a seller in Israel that once had a bunch of gem mint Game Boy games for sale.

[DK | 264]

2 hours ago, samsamsamsmasmasma said:

Cool find!

I think the bill and Ted corrected label also belongs in this discussion you all are having. It was a label with a USA code that was only released in Europe.

I live pretty close to the border. I wonder if it's worth going over to some game shops.

I have an extra one if you're looking.